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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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John Dryden
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(1631–1700) Dramatist and poet whose literary life was closely linked with the Restoration court; he was made *poet laureate in 1668. But his first career was in the public theatre. Of his many plays, the one that has lasted best is All for Love (1677), a reworking of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra along the lines of the classical drama fashionable in France at the time.
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He later discovered a talent for mock-heroic poetry. Absalom and Achitophel (1681) uses a biblical story to parallel the contemporary struggle between *Tories and Whigs as to whether the future James II should be excluded from the throne as a Roman Catholic. Faithful to his court position, Dryden brilliantly satirized the Whigs. When James did succeed to the throne, in 1685, Dryden himself converted to Roman Catholicism and wrote a long poem (The Hind and the Panther 1687) about the religious issues of the day.
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